Lazy Sundays-Francophile Edition

by Marie

With the rain beating down today, screwing up my plans to go thrift store shopping, I decided to catch up on some good old netflixing and discovered I must unintentionally be in a Francophile film phase! If only I were eating french fries, french-kissing, and wearing a beret while watching these, I would be filled with much joie. These four Paris-themed movies came out in the past year and I gladly recommend them to you.

Paris J’Taime is like eighteen love letters to Paris from twenty different directors, including Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, and Alexander Payne. You will automatically want to see the ones with Natalie Portman, who plays a woman in love with a blind Frenchman, and Steve Buscemi as a tourist attracting trouble in a subway. Another favorite of mine is about a family of mimes, since I do love those creepy mimes and clowns…

Two Days in Paris starring Julie Delpy, who was also equal parts writer and director, and Adam Goldberg, was a favorite of mine that I caught in the theatres a few months ago. I enjoyed the funny, fast-paced dialogue between two lovers, who spend, yes, two days in Paris running into her ex-boyfriends. I can’t wait to watch it again when it is released on dvd at the end of this month. I liked how Delpy cast her real-life parents as her character’s mother and father, and how some of the film is autobiographical and improvised. Adan Jodorowsky, Alejandro’s son, who played young Fenix in Santa Sangre [!] has a small part in it too.

Broken English stars Parker Posey who I will always love [long live Party Girl!] but this time she plays a lonely woman struggling with an unlucky love life. After having a few bad experiences with the opposite sex, she meets a sexy, free-spirited Frenchie and changes her ways. But no! It’s really not one of those movies. Trusting herself again with love takes her forever, and you really want to see her happy. Sigh. Her acting is nothing short of incredible. The ladyboner-producing Justin Theroux is in it too. On the fashion front, pay attention to the necklaces she wears. I am researching who made them now…

La Vie En Rose walks us through the tragic life of the famous French songstress, Edith Piaf. The movie shows us her heartbreaking, early years as a young, temporarily blind child raised by whores in a brothel, all the way to her success as a singer basked in the spotlight and adored by her audience as their “Little Sparrow.” After seeing Marion Cotillard emulate Edith’s extreme personality traits: from sassy and stubborn to vulnerable and anxious, I am excited to see what else she has acted in. She was beautiful as Edith, and reminded me of a French version of Zooey Deschanel.

[...] actress Marion Cotillard, who is up [and should win] for Best Actress in La Vie En Rose, which I saw recently. She is as adorable and lovely to watch as Audrey Tatou, but edgier. IN MY COMIC BOOK [...]